By Steven Carter
of The Oregonian staff

SALEM - Oregon high schools are teaching students about AIDS. But how much students are learning and understanding about the disease is open to question.

An Oregon Health Division survey of 13,992 students - about 10 percent of Oregon's high school population - was presented Thursday to the state Board of Education.

The survey, done in 1995, showed that 94 percent of the students, ninth through 12th grade, said they were getting AIDS instruction. But Dr. Grant Higginson, state health officer, told board members that a significant number of the students had bad information about how the disease was transmitted.

For example, he said, only 49 percent of the students knew that you could not get AIDS from donating blood. That was a decrease from 59 percent in an earlier survey. Sixty-nine percent knew that you could not get HIV or AIDS from a mosquito or other insect bite. In 1993, the year of the last survey, 73 percent of students knew the right answer.

"Schools are the most important source of information on HIV/AIDS," Higginson said. "The bad news is that more students answered questions about AIDS incorrectly in last year's survey than the one before."

Oregon high schools are required to give students information about AIDS and AIDS prevention. In fact, a majority of the students surveyed reported that school classes and brochures were their most important sources of information about the disease.

Please turn to
TEENS, Page C4

Teens: Marijuana use increasing among youth

Chris Barber, health curriculum specialist with the Salem-Keizer School District, said the survey results surprised her. AIDS education is taught in the fifth grade and continues through middle and high school, she said.

The health officer said the survey results might warrant a review of teacher training on the topic. It might be, Higginson said, that teachers themselves need more information on the best ways to teach students about AIDS.

Oregon has had no organized teachers training on AIDS instruction since 1988, though some districts have provided instruction on their own.

The survey, which looked at risky behavior among Oregon's youth, also indicated that many students have misperceptions about how frequently their peers engage in sex.

For example, many students believe incorrectly, Higginson said, that the majority of their classmates engage in sex.

In fact, only 40 percent of high school students surveyed reported ever having sex. That percentage increased to 54 among seniors, however.

The poll of high school students - called the Oregon Youth Risk Behavior Survey - is done every other year by the state Department of Education and the Health Division, using a grant from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Other states also participate in the survey, and the state agencies use it to make policy decisions about education and health training.

For the most part, Oregon's survey results mirror those of other states in terms of risky behavior and health knowledge. And, Higginson said, in most categories - smoking, drinking, sex and violence - Oregon high schoolers are engaging neither more nor less than they did two years ago.

The one category in which a statistically valid increase occurred, Higginson said, was in marijuana use. Forty-one percent of students said they had tried marijuana at least once in 1995, compared with 31 percent in 1993. Twenty-five percent reported using marijuana at least once in the 30 days before the 1995 survey. In 1993, however, the corresponding percentage was 14.

Higginson warned of limits in making comparisons between the 1995 survey and the earlier one. Nearly 14,000 students were surveyed in 1995 compared with only about 2,500 in 1993. Last year's survey was edited carefully to eliminate answers from students who appeared to exaggerate.

1995 Oregon Youth Risk Behavior Survey

to the All Politics Is Local page.

This URL: http://www.pdxnorml.org/OYRB_Survey_of_teens_022396.html